Chapter 41: The Comedian

“Chinese female singer goes viral on YouTube!”

Nine big characters topped today’s Weibo trending list.

Originally, due to China’s slow reaction to overseas platforms, Luo Quan’s trending topic might have taken days to appear—but Wen Xia reposted Luo Quan’s video on Weibo, giving her good friend a boost.

Wen Xia is among China’s top influencers and has been consistently active on Weibo recently, so her online visibility remains extremely high.

Her sudden repost of a music video with over a hundred million views on YouTube, created by a Chinese singer, was an instant sensation.

When netizens clicked in, they realized the girl looked familiar—wasn’t this the “Quanquan” who had been all over the news recently?

She had hit trending four times in three days; her channel marketing had annoyed many “passersby,” but her exceptional looks still drew a large fanbase.

Apparently, several of the most popular BGMs on Douyin lately were her compositions, but since they were in Japanese, they hadn’t drawn much attention.

But with Wen Xia’s traffic as a launchpad, Luo Quan, who had been dormant for days, reappeared in netizens’ view.

Like everyone else who heard “Faded,” Chinese netizens had zero resistance to its ethereal electronic beat—they were utterly captivated in under ten seconds.

Likes, reposts, shares—the massive base of Chinese netizens caused the song’s exposure to explode like nuclear fission.

Soon, “Faded” appeared on all major apps: Bilibili, Weibo, Douyin, Zhihu; the three major music platforms also gradually uploaded its audio source.

Judging from the comments, Chinese netizens rated the song extremely highly: first, it was simply beautiful; second, the pride of being accepted and adored by foreigners was equally significant.

In today’s era of material abundance, where basic needs are largely met, spiritual fulfillment—or entertainment—has become the primary pursuit of the young.

In entertainment, whether Japanese, Korean, or Western, the industry has progressed further and better than China’s—this is an undeniable fact.

In music, film, variety shows, Chinese entertainment workers mostly follow a “borrowing” mentality: whatever’s hot abroad, they buy the rights or directly copy it, calling it “Chinese-style innovation.”

This is the overall environment of Chinese entertainment—everything bears foreign imprints, leaving young people feeling somewhat disheartened when enjoying entertainment.

Under such conditions, those who persist in original creation, relying on talent and hard work to carve their own path, become even more rare and precious.

Luo Quan’s overseas fame made netizens proud—she proved that Chinese people can rise to fame abroad through their own abilities, and not just any fame!

The only downside was that this hit wasn’t a Chinese song—but before any orchestrated backlash or mockery arrived, these were trivial matters, utterly inconsequential.

Thus, the comment section of this trending topic was harmonious—everywhere you looked, it was encouragement, praise, and pride; pure positive energy.

With such a powerful assist from her good friend, Luo Quan wouldn’t miss this golden opportunity to promote herself—she immediately logged onto Weibo and posted the high-definition full version of “Faded.”

After nearly half a month offline, her Weibo direct messages had already exceeded 99+; upon checking, she found even more.

Interestingly, many messages came from one person, and nearly all of them were apologies.

Luo Quan suddenly remembered—the apologist was the one who had originally posted that ugly photo of her; perhaps terrified by the screenshot of her “abyssal mouth,” this fan had been heartbroken and sent over forty apology DMs in a single day.

“It’s pitifully humble,” Luo Quan shook her head and replied: “I’m not angry. Don’t blame yourself anymore.”

Luo Quan had assumed the matter was over—but she clearly underestimated the internet’s memory.

Beneath her new post, several familiar photos quickly appeared—her wide grin on Musi.

The most-liked comment read: “Goddess, is this really you?”

Luo Quan’s face turned as dark as a soot-covered pot: “Yes, it’s me!”

“It really is you!”

“I thought it was a troll’s Photoshop…”

“All my fantasies shattered! (facepalming)”

“Is this the so-called ‘abyssal mouth’ meme everyone’s talking about?”

“Yes, yes! I’ve seen it everywhere—I’ve even saved it myself. That smile is genuinely addictive!”

“Goddess Quanquan, you won’t be mad if we use your meme, right?”

Luo Quan sighed softly: “What can I do if I’m angry?”

Since she couldn’t resist, she might as well enjoy it—she typed back: “Stars and idols should bring joy to fans. Use it as you like.”

“No ego at all—giving you a like.”

“Quanquan isn’t an idol—she’s a singer with both talent and skill.”

“Many may not know—Quanquan’s album has sold one million copies in Japan, this year’s only diamond-certified album!”

“One million copies… that’s not much…”

“Up there, you think this is like those 3-yuan virtual albums in China? Quanquan’s albums cost at least 2,000 yen each—and right now in China, they’re unobtainable at any price!”

“That’s true—I have a friend who returned from Japan; I asked him to bring me one. He said Quanquan’s album is the hottest seller in Japan’s music market, and her three songs from the album are everywhere on Chinese and Japanese Douyin—absolutely a phenomenon!”

“By the way, when will Quanquan’s songs be available on Chinese music platforms? I’m sick of all these covers—such a beautiful song ruined by ‘black voice’ and ‘smoky voice,’ like someone’s throat is full of ten-year-old phlegm—it’s a crime!”

“I can’t stand that singing style either—and worse, you need VIP to listen to these covers. I never expected that.”

Luo Quan wasn’t surprised by these comments—China’s environment… VIP access was already relatively decent; the most absurd cases had the original free while covers cost money!

Whether this was good or bad was hard to say—after all, many covers mean the song is popular, but it also fragments attention. Still, as long as her original delivers the highest-quality listening experience, the bulk of the popularity will always remain with her.

“I’ll contact Chinese music platforms as soon as possible—I’m sure the original version will be available within a few days.”

After giving a firm promise, Luo Quan turned her gaze to Wen Xia beside her: “Summer, you look so beautiful today~~~”

Wen Xia frowned at this.

No good comes from unprovoked flattery!